Mayo Clinic Guidelines Cut Some Opioid Prescriptions By Half

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Mayo Clinic says that there has been a 48 percent reduction in the amount of opioids prescribed for patients who have had hip or knee replacement surgery.

This comes after recently conducted research suggesting improvements could be made to optimize care for patients.

Researchers looked at prescription refill rates across a group of patients in 2016 and 2017, which remained consistent even after the reduction in recommended dosage.

“The fact that refill rates remained the same is significant because it means we can adequately control most of our patients’ pain with these lower doses,” senior author Dr. Tad Mabry, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon, said. “We want to make a reduction in an informed way so we don’t under-treat patients’ pain. We want to achieve the best possible patient outcomes, and patient experience, with minimal exposure to opioids.”